Struggling cemetery shuts down operations
By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer
The owners of financially troubled Honolulu Memorial Park have closed the cemetery indefinitely, leaving the families of nearly 8,000 people buried or inurned there to tend to the gravesites and niches on their own.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
The only notice of the closure came in a note taped to the window of the park's locked office.
Richard Kawasaki of Manoa sponges down the granite memorial housing the ashes of his parents and brother. He and his siblings alternate visits to Honolulu Memorial Park in Nu'uanu to maintain the family memorial.
The news caught families off guard.
"It is not exactly comfortable not knowing what the future holds for the overall property," said Almo B. Paraso, whose father-in-law is buried at the cemetery. But he was glad at least that access is still allowed.
"If they closed access, they would have a lot of people up in arms," Paraso said. "Access is the most important thing regardless of the little incidentals."
The cemetery has been the object of a struggle between its owners, who say they have been losing money since inheriting the park 30 years ago, and plot and niche owners who are trying to save the park's pagoda and say the owners have violated a trust by not doing enough to maintain the historic structure.
Negotiations continue between the cemetery's owners and a nonprofit group of plot and niche holders trying to take over the park, but the abrupt closure signals that the owners have grown frustrated with the slow pace of bankruptcy court. The closure follows a Sept. 2 deadline for agreement that came and went without resolution.
"Efforts to reorganize through federal bankruptcy have failed, and the owners are no longer able to bear the present continuous losses," the note says.
As of 4 p.m. Friday the utilities were shut off, restrooms closed, and maintenance of the grounds ended, the note says.
Anyone with a family member at the cemetery should be prepared to bring their own water for flowers, clean their loved ones' headstones and trim the nearby grass until maintenance issues are resolved. The note says no more inurnments or property transfers will be available until "it is determined who, if anyone, can provide these services."
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
The Nu'uanu Avenue cemetery was founded in 1958. The Richards brothers — Manning, James and Montague — own a 90 percent interest in the park. Attorney Nils Katahara owns the rest.
The owners of Honolulu Memorial Park in Nu'uanu, known for its pagoda, have ceased maintenance, burial and inurning services as bankruptcy proceedings have failed to produce a takeover deal.
The owners say they have been losing money for decades and decided it was time to stem the losses.
Honolulu Memorial Park filed for bankruptcy on Dec. 28, 2001. At the time, the company listed assets of $815,932, including a small office building, unsold plots and niches, and $60,000 in cash.
The filing listed monthly income of $2,000 and monthly expenses of $11,000.
When filing for Chapter 11 protection, the owners asserted that the cemetery was bankrupt and estimated that it would take $1 million to repair the 37-year-old pagoda, its centerpiece and a replica of the Sanju Pagoda in Nara, Japan.
Niche holders rejected the owners' bankruptcy plan in February, prompting new negotiations and setting in motion a series of deadlines for completion, the latest of which was Sept. 2.
When that deadline passed, the owners decided to close the park, said City Councilman Rod Tam.
Tam has been working with the Friends of Honolulu Memorial Park trying to take over control of the cemetery. He said cutting off cemetery operations exerts extra pressure to complete the transaction, which he said should be finished in a week or two and turned over to the court for approval.
"There is a desire from both sides to turn over the cemetery ownership to the friends," Tam said. "It is a work in progress."
Neither attorneys for the Richards family nor for the nonprofit Friends of Honolulu Memorial Park returned calls seeking comment.
Under the most recent bankruptcy plan, the friends would acquire full stock ownership of the park and elect a new board of directors.
A second nonprofit formed by the Richards brothers — Kyoto Gardens Park — would serve as a fund-raising entity to bring in revenues for park maintenance and restoration of the pagoda.
The two entities may merge later, with the money to be used exclusively for the care and maintenance of the park.
Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.
